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Dec. 27 Letters to the Editor

Bikini means coveragee

“Protesters give very cold shoulder to KFC” was a very enlightening article. Just one year ago when my sister Rebecca was invited to Venice, Italy to teach at an International Art School and show in a gallery there, the BDN chose not to report the successes of a young, local professional. Had she known a year ago what she knows now, perhaps this female artist wouldn’t have received the “cold shoulder” from the BDN.

The epiphany I have come to is that although it is 2008, our advancement in women’s liberation unfortunately isn’t so great. Apparently all she need do is don a bikini and wrap herself around a piece of her art and the BDN would have been there with bells and whistles … and perhaps even linked its readers to a video clip of her moving around her art out on the street corner for passers-by to honk and gawk. Then perhaps BDN could “rejoice in the successes of a local “chick”.

Lori Krupke

Lamoine

• • •

At issue in Hermon

I would like to clarify the Dec. 22 BDN article, “Recreation center still an issue in Hermon.”

The concerns I raised in the Dec. 18 Town Council meeting were with the process used by the council and town manager regarding the funding and tax impact statements. The concerns were not with the recreation department or the recreation steering committee. The recreation department and steering committee used the results that were approved by the council, which is appropriate. The department and steering committee put in many hours of hard work defining a center that would benefit the people. I and many other citizens of Hermon deeply appreciate their efforts.

I would also like to give credit to the council for acknowledging very early in the discussion that in the future a project that large should really be subject to independent review before a decision is made. The discussion was not without controversy but the end result shows that the council does listen to citizen concerns.

Dan Petersen

Hermon

• • •

Christmas cheering

The other night my wife of over 35 years and I were sitting home in the early evening, waiting for dinner to cook on the stove. We had changed into our “comfy clothes,” with the only thing on our minds a serious medical problem we have upcoming in our lives. The mood was not the greatest and the holiday season was the last thing on our minds.

Then came a knock on our door, and I opened it to find about a dozen people standing on our porch, with the outside temperature at 2 degrees above the doughnut, led by a bearded jolly man wearing a Santa Claus hat.

They proceeded to serenade us with about a half dozen of the most entertaining holiday carols that we have heard in a long time. Some of them brought tears of joy to our eyes.

After a round of hugs and thank-yous, they were gone as quick as they had arrived, leaving us in tears but realizing the spirit of the season that they had brought back to us. We do not know how to again thank them all. We will call them the Hamlet Carolers, and we hope they will see this and the rest of the community will realize how special these people are.

Rick and Marlene Spearrin

East Millinocket

• • •

Retail dead end

Your editorial advice (“Shop So We Don’t Drop,” BDN, Dec. 19) that we all go shopping to aid the economy is disturbing. An economy that depends on shopping is a house of cards.

Look beyond groceries to the mountains of plastic packaging that fills a Wal-Mart store, 90 percent of it made in China. The low prices are immaterial since much of what’s offered is valueless. China has built its dream economy on dumb Americans buying stuff they don’t need with money they don’t have. This is our future?

The flipside of globalization has been the decimation of our powerhouse manufacturing sector, which once produced the best of world goods and provided a high standard of living to millions of workers here.

Buying the hype that global economics are irresistible, Americans have unwittingly bought into a losing scenario. Long ago the business community betrayed us, outsourcing our jobs to overseas low wages and zero regulation. Politicians were eager to help because of our dollar-driven electoral system. This was a terrible, and avoidable, mistake.

Consumers should stop buying cheap foreign junk and let those that sell it collapse. We should indeed be saving our money, until there’s something worth investing in. One hopes that someday we can return to manufacturing quality goods here at home.

The GDP needs to be based on something more substantial than rampant shopping for the unnecessary. Maybe we’re getting there — I hear 148,000 retail stores have closed. Good.